Phase Change of Multicomponent Mixtures in Annular Flow: January 2001
Phase Change of Multicomponent Mixtures in Annular Flow: January 2001
Phase Change of Multicomponent Mixtures in Annular Flow: January 2001
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Abstract
A study is presented on the role of droplet interchange in the annular
ow regime and on
its in
uence on the mechanisms by which heat is transferred to or from the two-phase mixture
in convective boiling or condensation of multicomponent mixtures. A modelling framework
based on dierential conservation equations is applied to calculate the distributions of phase
concentration, interfacial and wall temperatures and heat transfer coecient for both evaporat-
ing and condensing systems under various conditions. Results are compared with those obtained
experimentally for boiling of hydrocarbon mixtures (Kandlbinder, 1997) and condensation of
R-407C (Cavallini et al., 1999).
Key words: Annular
ow; boiling; condensation; multicomponent mixtures
1. Introduction
Droplet entrainment and deposition are vigorous mass exchange phenomena which dis-
rupt the hydrodynamic equilibrium of annular
ow. Drops are created by the shearing
action of the gas
ow at the crest of large amplitude waves which travel on a liquid lm
attached to the wall. The drops entrained from the lm move along the channel in the gas
core, some of the droplets being re-deposited as they pass along the channel. Amongst
many other eects, these phenomena are known to exert a high in
uence on important
ow parameters like pressure drop (Fore and Dukler, 1995).
The objective of this study is to investigate the role of droplet interchange in the
annular
ow regime and its in
uence on the mechanisms by which heat is transferred
to and from the two-phase mixture in convective boiling and condensation. The signi-
cance of droplet interchange seems to have been overlooked in previous multicomponent
phase change studies and the correct prediction of this mechanism may hold the key to
understanding the behaviour of the heat transfer coecient at high qualities.
The heat transfer coecient for mixture systems is dened by the following equation,
= T q,_w T ; (1)
w E
1
where q_w is the heat
ux applied to the channel wall, Tw is the temperature of the inner
wall and TE is an equilibrium temperature calculated based on the system local pressure
and enthalpy. For mixtures undergoing condensation TE is the dew point temperature,
whereas for boiling or evaporation TE is the bubble point temperature.
Recent experiments carried out at HTFS Harwell and Imperial College (Kandlbinder,
1997) and elsewhere (Cavallini et al., 1999) demonstrated a deterioration and an im-
provement of at high qualities for boiling and condensing
ows, respectively. It is
believed that the departure from mechanical equilibrium caused by droplet entrainment
and deposition plays a vital role in determining the distributions of interfacial and of wall
temperature in such systems. These trends are not picked up by methods and correlations
that do not take into account droplet interchange.
A modelling framework based on dierential conservation equations is used to calcu-
late the distributions of phase concentrations, interfacial and wall temperatures and heat
transfer coecients for both evaporating and condensing systems at various conditions.
Rates of droplet entrainment and deposition are calculated using an extension to mul-
ticomponent systems (Barbosa and Hewitt, 2001a, 2001b). Interphase transfer of mass
and heat is dealt with using a Colburn-Drew methodology.
This paper is organised as follows. Section 2 gives a theoretical overview of the prob-
lem. The calculation methodology is presented in Section 3. Results are presented
in Section 4. These are compared with experimental data obtained for boiling of n-
pentane/n-hexane/iso-octane mixtures (Kandlbinder, 1997) and condensation of R-407C
(Cavallini et al., 1999). Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section 5.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. Boiling/Evaporation
2
for multicomponent evaporation, from TE due to mass transfer resistances in the vapour.
These resistances may be dealt with using classical methods (Colburn and Drew, 1937;
Webb, 1995). However, if the concentration of the respective component in the droplets
diers from that in the liquid lm (Fig. 1.b), then this eect can have a profound in
uence
and vitiates the direct application of the classical methods.
Implicitly Actual
assumed in situation
design
2.2. Condensation
It is intuitive to think that the eects described in Section 2.1 will work in an opposite
way for condensation, i.e., it will make the lm become locally richer in the more volatile
component than the droplets. This eect may then give rise to an enhancement of the heat
transfer coecient, Eq.(1), as the wall temperatures for the hydrodynamic equilibrium
case are higher than those for real annular
ow.
However, the relative eect of droplet interchange on the condensation heat transfer
may be less than in evaporation due to two reasons. Firstly, typical boiling ranges
of mixtures used in condensing systems (and therefore experiments) are much lower
than some observed in boiling experiments (R-407C at 1.5 MPa has a boiling range
of the order of 5 K). This makes the saturation temperature imbalance between the
liquid lm and droplets much more subtle. Secondly, in evaporation, diusive mass
transfer resistance and droplet interchange work in the same way, i.e., towards a decrease
in the heat transfer coecient. In condensation, however, the heat transfer coecient
deterioration due to mass transfer resistance may be sucient to cancel out or overcome
any increase associated with droplet interchange.
3. Modelling
Mass conservation equations can be derived for the annular
ow regime (Barbosa and
Hewitt, 2001a, 2001b). For a NOC -component mixture, these are given by,
0 1
X
d m_ = 4 @hDi , E , NOC
dz LF dT m_ I;j A ; (2)
j =1
X
d m_ = 4 NOC
dz GC
dT j=1 m_ I;j ; (3)
d m_ = 4 (E , hDi) ; (4)
dz LE dT
2 3
d x = 4 4(hDx i , hDix ) + NOCX
dz LF;i d m_ LF;i LF;i m_ I;j xLF;i , m_ I;i5 ; (5)
T LF j =1
0 1
d y = 4 @m_ , NOC X A
dz b;i dT m_ GC I;i j=1 m_ I;j yb;i : (6)
4
where m_ denotes a mass
owrate per unit pipe cross-sectional area. The subscripts LF ,
LE , GC , I and b relate to the liquid lm, entrained liquid, gas core, interface and bulk.
D and E are the droplet entrainment and deposition rates. The cumulative operator hi
quanties the deposition of groups of droplets with distinct concentrations (Barbosa and
Hewitt, 2001). The interfacial mass
uxes m_ I;i are positive for evaporation and negative
for condensation. An energy balance for the gas core gives,
d T = 4 [ (T , T ) + (E , hDi) c (T , T )] :
m_ C cpC dz (7)
C
d GC I C
T
pLE I C
The rst term in the RHS of Eq.(7) is the conductive contribution of the heat
ux to
the vapour phase. The second term is the net energy released/absorbed by the entrained
liquid due to entrainment and deposition. m_ C , cpC and TC are the core mass
ux,
specic heat capacity and temperature, respectively. These are calculated based on the
assumption of a homogeneous (no slip)
ow in the vapour core.
Momentum balance equations are written in terms of pressure gradients (accelera-
tional, gravitational, frictional). These are as follows (Hawkes, 1996).
dp = dp + dp + dp ; (8)
dz dz a dz f dz g
" #
dp = , (u , u ) dm_ GC + 4 (E + hDi) , duC [m_ + hm_ i] ; (9)
C LF
dza dz d dz GC
T
LE
dp = ,2 I ; (10)
dz f rI
dp = , g; (11)
C
dz g
where C and uC are the homogeneous core density and velocity, respectively. rI is
the distance from the pipe centre line to the interface. I is the interfacial shear stress
calculated using the correlation by Whalley and Hewitt (1978).
At each integration step z, an iterative procedure is carried out to determine the
interfacial mass
uxes, compositions and temperature. The solution algorithm for the
interphase heat and mass transfer calculation is comprised by the following steps (Webb,
1995),
1. Known: xLF (= xLF ; fully mixed lm hypothesis), yb;i, TC ;
I ;i b;i
5
The set of equations used in the interfacial heat and mass balances iterative calculation
is summarised below. These are based on a Film (Colburn-Drew) Theory. For heat
transfer,
X
NOC
e (T , T );
q_GC = m_ I;j hv;j + GC I T
C (12)
j =1
= GC T ;
GC (13)
e , 1 T
1 X
NOC
T = m_ I;j cpGC;j : (14)
GC j =1
1 X
NOC
[] = m_ I;j [BGC ],1: (18)
GC j =1
7
C O N C E N T R A T IO N O F N -P E N T A N E (M A S S F R A C T IO N )
0.60
0.50
D ro p le ts
0.40
F ilm
0.30
4 .0 0 5 .0 0 6 .0 0 7 .0 0 8 .0 0 9 .0 0
D IS T A N C E [m ]
0.30
LIQ U ID P H A S E C O N C E N T R A T IO N (M A S S F R A C T IO N )
R -125
F ilm
0.2 8
D ro p le ts
0 .11 0.26
R -32
F ilm
0 .10 D ro ple ts
0 .09
0 .40 0.80 1.20 1.60 2.00 2.40
D IS T A N C E [m ]
8
410
W a ll
T E M P E R A T U R E [K ]
400
In te rfa ce
390
C o re
380
4 .00 5 .0 0 6 .00 7 .0 0 8.0 0 9 .00
z [m ]
5000
Kandlikar (1998)
HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT [W/m2K]
4000
Palen (1983)
3000
Sardesai et al.
(1982)
Kandlbinder, 1997
1000
2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00
DISTANCE [m]
9
8000
P R E D IC TE D H E A T T R A N S F E R C O E FF IC IE N T (W /m 2 K )
+20%
6000
-2 0 %
4000
C o n de nsatio n of R -40 7 C
2000 d ata o f C a vallini et a l. (19 99 )
2 00 kg/m 2s
4 00 kg/m 2s
7 50 kg/m 2s
0
0 2 0 00 4 0 00 6 00 0 8 00 0
M E A S U R E D H E A T TR A N S FE R C O E F FIC IE N T (W /m 2 K )
5. Conclusions
This paper presented a modelling study on the in
uence of droplet interchange on phase
change heat transfer to binary and ternary mixtures in annular
ow. The main conclu-
sions arising from this work are as follows,
1. droplet entrainment and deposition eects cause dierences between lm and droplet
concentrations. Analysis of these eects suggests that the heat transfer coecient
decreases with increasing quality for boiling/evaporating
ows, whereas it increases
with increasing quality for condensation;
2. the calculation methodology presented was successful at predicting both boiling
and condensation heat transfer data;
3. a more detailed set of experiments, aimed specically at investigating the in
uence
of droplet interchange on condensation heat transfer of multicomponent mixtures,
would be very useful in order to consolidate the analysis.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Luisa Rossetto (Universita di Padova, Italy) for kindly providing
the experimental data on condensation. JRB thanks the Brazilian National Research
Council (CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientco e Tecnologico) for
the award of a scholarship (Grant No. 200085/97-2).
10
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